


The Falls

by Writergrl9



Category: Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-19
Updated: 2014-02-23
Packaged: 2018-01-13 01:21:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1207567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writergrl9/pseuds/Writergrl9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bella is determined to find out who killed her sister and why. What she doesn't know is that nothing is what it appears to be in Rivers Falls and that Alice had secret. Secrets so dark that it may have gotten her killed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Prologue

First, a warning

My story will not have a happy ending. No warm feelings of justice will be felt. No sense of peace will be given. None of the typical feelings of closure that normally accompany resolutions such as these will be had. When the truth will be revealed, more questions will be asked then answered. Like, how could this happen to such a nice girl? What kind of family could do all this? What happened to the once peaceful town of Rivers Falls?

My story will not have a happing end. If that were true, then I would be alive, married and have children of my own. Instead, I am dead at eighteen. I never went to prom; or got to walk down the aisle at graduation. I never went to college or did any of the activities that comprise an adult life. I will never get to see my parents again or my baby sister, Bella. She's the one I feel sorry for most of all. It will be her that will bear the brunt of my actions, feel the pain of my poor choices, and ultimately, she'll be the one that will have to live with my truth.

My story will not have a happy ending. The town that I once called home will be destroyed; its secrets revealed for all the world to see. Families will be torn apart, and friends will be at odds with each other. Traditions and ritual will fall by the waste side. Death again will come to this sleepy little town. No one will ever be the same again.

My story will not have a happy ending. The only solace that I feel is that at least I got to feel what it meant to fall in love. But, loving me will be tragic for all involved. Everyone will remember the name Alice Swan. A name that will be what urban legend are made of. A name that will come to be synonymous with sadness and pain. Oh yes, I will be remembered.

My story will not have a happy ending. I write this, in the hopes that my story will serve as a cautionary tale. That through my pain and mistakes other can learn, and hopeful avoid doing some of the things that I have done. I can not say that I have come to regret my decisions, no certainly not all of them. I do regret shutting my family and friends out and not allowing them to help me. I can not help but think that had I simply let someone else in then all of this could have been avoided. It's too late for me now I know this. My desire is that by reading my story it will save some other from the same tragic end that I meet. If this does help, then my life and death did have a purpose.

I close this with a final warning. My story will not have a happy ending.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1: Home Coming

Rivers Falls is a small town that is located in a remote part of New England. The town lacks the look of modernism. Mom and Pop shops are still the main source of consumerism and the shops are past down from generation to generation. It's very picturesque, with a Norman Rockwell feel. It really was a perfect little town.

The leaves fell in vibrant colors giving the streets have a quaint and old world feel. In the winters the town would see a generous amount of snow. The snow would melt and melt am icicles hang from the trees. The lakes would freeze over, creating a personal winter wonderland. Spring would bring out young love. In the summer, the lakes would be packed with sun bathers and boat enthusiasts. It was an ideal place to raise children and one of the safest in the country.

The town consisted of about 2000 people with barely twenty five percent labeled as wealthy. If you were lucky enough to be born on the right side of the tracks then you got away with whatever you wanted. Of courses this also meant that you were obligated to your family and everything that the town required of them. Good grades and keeping up appearances were mandatory in this town. The rich were treated like royalty and whatever they did made the papers. They town had very little crime and murders were practically none existent.

That was until Alice Swan.

It was the year 1999 when the town changed. Her murder was the first murder that the sleepy little town had seen in nearly twenty years. Of course her murder was the only unsolved crime to ever happen in Rivers Falls. Her murder would leave a permanent stain on the once perfect sleepy little town that would never quite go away. The name Alice and Rivers Falls would be synonymous from that day forward. The murder of a pretty rich girl was not something that the media could pass up and it would be a year before they would leave the town moving on to the next hot story.

Edward

It had been years since he had been home. At the age of eighteen, he left home for college and he hadn't looked back since. It wasn't like he disliked his family; it was more the small town life that had been all he'd known. Rivers Falls, or New England for that matter, ha,,, , mfdvjksfvkjsfvkjbsfdfbsfvd never agreed with him, nor did his life as one of the social elite.

Edward was a Cullen. And the Cullen's were considered royalty in that town. Edward was smart athletic boy who was very popular. He was very handsome and it was clear he took after his father. He was tall and lean; he was well toned with the right amount of muscles. With rust color hair that wouldn't be tamed. Normally this would be unattractive, but on Edward it worked. Like his mother, he had startling green eyes. His father was a successful medical doctor and his mother was a debutant from New York. His blood couldn't be bluer. Life in such a small town meant that you had very few options, unlike the city. Most activities were centered at the school leaving your interaction limited to those children that you attended school with. Edwards had even fewer options, there were few families that had children that it was considered acceptable to hang out with. The friends that Edward had growing up were his older brother Emmet, the Whitlock twins; Jasper and Rosalie and the Swan girls, Alice and Bella.

Alice was a naturally short girl that resembles a pixie. Now, you have to understand there were two Alice's. The first Alice was every parents dream. She was a straight A student, she was on the cheerleading squad and on student council. This Alice had long brown curly hair that she'd always worn styled. She wore light make up and her cl ccchgothes were stylish but classy. Her dresses and skirts came just above the knee and her tops were a round neck. The second Alice had short brown hair with burgundy tips. She wore leather pants and revealing shirts. Her makeup was dark and her heals were high. This Alice smoked and did drugggggggs. She was the eldest daughter of a very prominent and famous judge. Her father proceeded over a lot of high profile criminal cases that ranged from the mob to your rich and famous crimes that usually got played out on Court T.V. The Swans were also one of the most prominent families in the town, owning half the town meant that it was hard not to know the Swan name. Charles, or Charlie, Swan came from a rich and powerful family. After a period in working in his father's law firm, he decided to have a life with less stress that would allow him to spend more time with his family. So he became a judge. Thanks to his father's connections, Charlie was able to get the pick of the cases.

Edward grew up with Alice. They were both in the same year and Bella only a year behind them. It was the winter of their senior year when Alice w wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwas murdered. The town had never seen anything like it. Her body was found naked, raped, and beaten lying on the floor of the woods. The night before her body was found, they all had attended the last football game of the season. There was a party in the woods that night to celebrate. There was so many people there it was hard to keep count. Nearly everyone had remembered seeing Alice at some point in the night but no one saw who she left with or when she had left. It was the next morning the Swan's realized Alice hadn't returned home. After calling all of her friends, the Swans made the local Chief of Police form a search party to go look for her. In the end it would her younger sister, Bella, who found her.

Now, ten years later, since that horrible night, Edward was returning home for his brother's wedding. Many thoughts ran through his mind as he made the drive from New York to Rivers Falls. Now a successful lawyer, he had not seen any of his childhood friends since graduation. Everything ended that year, childhood innocence, the friendships that they all thought would last forever and the belief that the world was good.

Without realizing it Alice was the glue that held them together; they were never able to recover. Suspicion, of course, fell first to Jasper Whitlock, Alice's boyfriend, but he was cleared quickly through finger prints and DNA evidence. It tore them apart. For a while, everyone believed that it was Jasper and even after his name was cleared some thought that his family had paid for his innocence.

Then there was Bella. Bella looked much like Alice. Both of the girls like their father. Bella had long curly brown and deep brown eyes. She was slightly tall like her mother, with slight frame that made them look toned. They found her curled up against a tree, covered in blood, rocking back and forth staring at her sister's dead body. She refused to speak for a while and was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. After the funeral, her family took her away and that was the last time Edward had seen here. Bella was the one person he was anxious to see. They had dated in the beginning of his senior year. Their relationship came to an end the night that Alice died. He, of course, had tried to keep tabs on her over the years. He knew she became a very successful writer. She wrote mystery novels and some true life crime novels that actually helped solve some cold cases. He knew that she was now working on her sister's case; he also knew that she had been refused access to the files even though she was a daughter of a judge. He had wondered why the judge didn't press harder for his daughter's murder to be found.

The family had been difficult during the investigation, at times flat out refusing to cooperate with the police even going as far as taking Bella away so that they couldn't question her. They, of course, claimed that they didn't want her traumatized any more. He had tried to go and see her himself but was turned away and told that she needed her rest. Here he was, still thinking about the Swan girls, pulling up to his family's home. It was like this town was bringing back memories of Alice.

He wasn't surprised to find that everyone was still fast asleep. He quietly went to his old room, careful not to disturb anyone. The room was exactly how he'd left it. His shelves were still filled with all of his books and trophies, his walls still had pictures up depicting various events from high school. Bella was in nearly every one of them and not surprisingly, so was Alice. He lightly touched the only picture that he had of Alice and Bella. They were both smiling with their arms around each other throwing kisses at the camera. It was from the masked ball that their school held on Halloween and it was the last time that they were all together. He smiled at the memory; he was pulled out of his trance by his mother's voice.

"Darling! Welcome home!" Esme gushed as she threw her arms around her youngest son. "It has been to long my son. How was your drive?" She linked her arm through Edwards and led them to the couch that was located in the far corner of the room.

Edward embraced his mother. He forgot how good a mother's hug could feels. "Tiring. I'm surprised you kept my room."

"How could we not? It's not like we needed the room. Your brother is going to be so happy to see you. But first, you need to rest and shower. When you're done, come down stairs and I will have Lily make you something to eat."

Hours later, Edward was rested and showered. He found his family in the back yard having brunch. He didn't realize how hungry he was until he saw the chicken creaser salad.

"Edward?" Carlisle was the first to see his son. "When did you get in?"

"Early this morning. Didn't mother tell you?"

"I thought it best to surprise everyone." Esme smiled. She was glad that she was finally able to have her family back. The last time they were all in their family home was longer then she was willing to admit.

"Eddie, welcome back little brother." Emmett hugged Edward. "I missed you."

"I missed you too. So tell me how are the wedding plans coming? And where is that lovely fiancé of yours?" Edward looked around for Rosalie. He had not taken his arm off his brother, they looked younger, freer and Edward wondered if this town would somehow kill the good mood that two of them had found themselves in. He was certain that the many years spent living away from Mystic Rivers had somehow brought back some of their innocence and freed them from the hell that the two of them knew existed in the world.

Bella

Bella sat in her car thinking, or rather deciding, if she should actually go into her parent's house or hightail it out of there and head to the nearest motel or home for that matter. The last memory she had of this house was of her being taken out of there and sent to a mental institution where she spent six months. It would be safe to assume that Bella was not looking forward to returning home. Her only possible benefit for stepping foot into that house would be to connect with Alice. She longed to go into her sister's room.

"How long do you think she is going to sit out there for?" Charlie had tears in his eyes as he watched his youngest and now only child struggle with the simple act of returning home. He couldn't believe that they had managed to push their daughter so far away.

"Bella is just being stubborn. She knows how to do the right thing." Renee was sure of one thing…Bella would do whatever her family needed. Right now they needed to come back home and show up at this wedding. The family had been the center of the local gossip ever since their daughter Alice died. Well, if they were being honest, Alice had a way of always being the center of attention, no matter what she needed to do to obtain it. There was more the on ne occasion when they had to clean up after one of Alice's messes which left the whole town speculating to what actually happened. Bella was the opposite. She never had to be told twice and she was the model of what a perfect daughter should be. Honor roll, star jumper in her equestrian class, prima de ballerina and well , liked by all of her classmates. Renee couldn't say enough good things about her youngest. After graduation they sent her on a trip through Europe and then right to college. If she mentioned coming home they took her on another trip to get the idea out of her head. Bella had not stepped foot in her family's home in ten years and had not seen her parents in nearly two. She blamed them for not doing more to find Alice's murderer and at times told them that she felt that they were glad that she was dead so she could no longer do things to put shame on the family.

Bella took one last deep breath before leaving the car. She didn't even need to knock before her father opened the door and hugged her with everything he had. "I missed you Bells."

For the first time Bella allowed herself to miss her family. "I missed you too daddy."

Bella went up to her old room and cleaned up. She walked around in circles trying to imagine the girl that used to live in that room. She was pleasantly surprised to find her room had not changed. She figured that her parents would have turned it into a study or something in order get rid of every piece of Alice just like they did with most of the house. The only evidence that showed that Alice ever existed in the world, let alone her family, was her room. Her room now served as a time capsule of sorts. A living tomb, so to speak, that led to another time and another place. Bella changed a lot in the last ten years. She was untrusting and she knew all too well how cruel the world was.

Alice was the last person to ever set foot across that threshold. Even when the cops were investigating her murder, the Swans refused to allow entrance. Claiming that it was their last connection to their daughter and they wanted it preserved. Bella, herself, had tried on many different occasions to search the room; she had even asked if she could have something that belonged to Alice that she could always have with her but her parents refused. That is what led her to her suspicion that her parents were covering up something they knew about the murder. She had even considered them suspects for awhile, but with the help of her therapist, and a private eye, she was able to forgive and clear them

After a short rest, Bella decided that it was time that she finally go and deal with her parents.

"Good morning, Bells." Charlie called happily from the breakfast table. Charlie and Renee were already seated by the time Bella woke up. Renee was having a cup of tea and looking over the society pages while Charlie had his usual black coffee and was reading the business section. "Saved the entertainment section for ya, Bells."

"Thanks, dad." Bella kissed both her parents before taking her seat. Her eyes fixed on the empty chair that was across from her

"Belllaaa. Well good morning, sleepy head." Alice, who was usually the first one up, giggled and hugged her sister her customary good morning hug before continuing chnecking her planner. 

"Bella, Bella." Renee's voice snapped Bella out of her momentary trance.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you." Bella blinked several times to readjust her focus. For a few more seconds she was still seeing Alice.

"I was asking what you wanted for breakfast. Tell Emily, and I am sure she can get you whatever you like." Renee asked her daughter

"Ummm, I'll just have whatever she has on her menu today."

"Well, in anticipation for your home coming, she made blueberry crepes." Renee smiled, clearly proud that she still remembered her daughter's favorite breakfast. Don't be fooled, Renee was not the one responsible for the meal. She was never too maternal, and sp sent time with the girls when it was socially acceptable to be seen with them in public. When Alice turned sixteen, she started to defy Renee. Once Alice started to tell her no, their relationship quickly deteriorated and Renee spent all of her attention on Bella turning her into the perfect daughter. It was unclear what turned Alice against Renee, whether it was typical teenage angst, they'll never know, but Alice changed and there was no going back. It worked for awhile, but Alice made sure to undermine Renee at every turn claiming that Bella needed to lead her own life. Towards the end, the two would only speak; more like yell; when it came to Bella. Bella had a lot of guilt and once Alice was gone, she turned that guilt into self loathing and with that came depression. This was the main reason for her prolonged hospitalization.

"Thanks." Bella took a drink from her ice coffee and debated how she was going to approach her parents about finally going into Alice's room. "Mom, dad, there's something that I need to ask the two of you."

"Bella, you know you can ask us anything," Charlie quickly replied. Charlie had always been very close to both of his daughter's. He would go to their ballet lessons and they, in turn, would spend the rare weekend on a fishing trip with Charlie. It was the closeness that Charlie missed the most. He often said that the day Alice was murdered, he lost Bella too.

"I want to go through Ally's room."

Renee dropped her fork and slammed her hands on the table. "Why are you doing this? Why is it every time we see you, you have to bring it up? Do you want to break my heart, is that it?"

Bella was livid. For Renee to claim that the memory of her dead daughter actually hurt her was laughable. "Hurt you, hurt you? I am simply trying to keep her memory alive, not locked up in that room. Yes, she's dead and I know that by going in that room it's going to hurt…a lot, but I also know that room is the only place left on this earth that is still Alice. I need to know what happened; I have to understand why someone would take her away. I can't move on until I know. I spent years helping others, hoping that it would fulfill the void, but it hasn't. Look at me mom, I need this. I have to know. There is something in there that will help me. I know it."

Renee couldn't take it anymore and she left the table without excusing herself. Her chair hit the floor with a bang and, for a few moments that was the only sound that was heard in the room. "Dad…" Bella was prevented from finishing.

"Bella, do you really need this?" Part of the reason that Charlie had refused to let Bella into the case materials was because he was afraid of what Bella would find. Bella idolized Alice and Charlie was well aware that his eldest daughter was no saint. It was because of Alice's past that he rushed the investigation and refused to let the local police department to go into her room. He didn't want his daughter to embarrass him anymore and he was sure the more that people knew about Alice, the more secrets of hers would come out. His family needed to keep a certain image. Of course, this meant that her murderer would go free and they would never know the truth, but he was willing to pay that price and Renee had agreed with him one hundred percent. He had not counted on what this would do to Bella; she was just a kid…like Alice, and that was not a choice he felt she needed to make.

Over the years, he watched as his daughter cut herself off from everyone and everything. She went through college just going through the motions, she did the work, she got the A's but she never interacted socially like the rest of peers. She would go to society events that her mother made her attend and she would sit in the corner and talk only when spoken to. Her world became Alice and she fixated on finding her killer.

"Yes, dad, I do. I just need to know. I need to make sure that Alice isn't wandering this earth as a lonely soul because her killer is still free." She hoped that her sister had finally found happiness and peace, but she knew that would never be the case. There were times when she was certain that she saw or heard Alice and it was like she was telling her that she had to help her. It was the night before she made the drive home that she had a dream about Alice, and in the dream Alice was telling her to check her room.

She was seventeen again, back in her old room, when she heard giggling. She walked to her door in time to see Alice running around the corner. "Alice wait up, you're going too fast," Bella screamed as she chased after her and stopped when she saw Alice outside of her bedroom door. Alice just stood there looking sadly at Bella and then looking again longingly at the door. "Aren't you going to go in?"

"I can't. It's not mine anymore. I can't go back in there until it's out." There were tears in Alice's eyes as she spoke.

"What do you mean? It's your room." Bella tried to move closer to Alice but the closer she got the farther Alice seemed to get.

"I'm there, Bella. You just have to go in."

"We'll go in together." Bella smiled.

"You have to find it first. Find me first. Won't you help me, Bella?" Alice was crying now.

"Yes, I want to help you. Alice just need to tell me who killed you?" Bella was crying herself and to her it felt like the tears would never end.

Alice just laughed. "Sorry, Bells. I love you."

"Alright. I have one condition?"

"Anything." Bella would agree to anything if it meant that she would get into that room.

"You have to wait until after the welcome back dinner your mother has planned for you." Charlie winced. He knew his daughter hated when people made a fuse over her and a party in her honor was going to be the worst evening of her life. "Your mother is just so glad you're home. She just wants to do this like old times. Please, Bells, please give her this?"

Bella cringed. She knew that people would talk about her break down and about Alice but she was going to do it, no matter how painful she was sure the event was going to be. "Sure. So when is this thing?"

"It's this Saturday. It's formal and she invited everyone from town." Charlie knew that with Bella it was best just too stjusjick to the facts.

"Saturday, dad, come on? You have my word." She couldn't wait a week, it would be slow torture.

"If I let you in that room you will do nothing but obsess over your sister. This is real important to your mom, Bells. She finally got her daughter back." Charlie was now the one pleading.

After a few more moments of consideration, Bella realized that this was her only shot and she had to accept her father's terms. "Deal." They shook on it and went on with breakfast.


End file.
